IOWA CITY — An animal rights activist Thursday criticized two
University of Iowa researchers for wasting tax dollars in redundant
studies, and she called on the UI to release records on its primate
research.

Leana Stormont, a UI law school student, held a press conference in
front of UI’s Spence Labs to discuss the issue Thursday afternoon. She
was speaking as the Midwest coordinator for Stop Animal Exploitation
Now.

Her group requested a batch of records from UI under the state’s Open
Records law. The group asked for all the active research proposals
involving primates, health care records associated with those primates
and reports that UI researchers file when primates die.

Linda Kettner, a UI spokeswoman, said she knew of no reason the UI
would not comply with the group’s request for records.

During the news conference, Stormont singled out UI psychology
professors John Freeman and Amy Poremba. They were among the researchers
whose labs were damaged in a Nov. 14 breakin at Spence Labs.

Stormont said Freeman and Poremba are repeating already-existing
research or research being done elsewhere. She said the National
Institutes of Health currently funds 35 grants in Freeman’s research
area — neural information processing in rats.

‘‘This is not about science,’’ she said in a news release. ‘‘This is
about money — attracting hundreds of thousands of dollars to UI’s
coffers.’’

Freeman could not be reached for comment.

Stormont cited an article Poremba recently published in the
scientific journal Nature. In the article, Poremba said ‘‘it’s already
known’’ that the left hemisphere of a human brain is involved in
processing language.

But Poremba said her most recent article does not test that belief in
a repetitive study; instead, it helped map a specific part of the rhesus
monkey brain that processes complex sounds.

She also said that Nature is one of the most prestigious scientific
journals in the world. ‘‘They don’t publish redundant studies,’’ she
said.

Stormont said Stop Animal Exploitation Now has no ties to the Animal
Liberation Front, which took responsibility for the November break-in at
Spence Labs.

Stormont said she held the press conference because the UI has not
been forthcoming with information about animal research on campus.

In recent months, UI spokesman Steve Parrott has acknowledged that UI
researchers are involved in primate research, but he would not say how
many primates were being used or where, citing potential security
problems.